Cancer Patients' Care Inadequate, Report Says

June 21, 2001|By Susan Okie The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — At least half of the 550,000 Americans who die of cancer each year suffer pain, depression, trouble breathing or other symptoms, but many get inadequate care for such problems because American medicine has focused so exclusively on curing cancer, a new report charges.

Most cancer patients in the United States do not receive medical care that combines freedom to choose the treatments they want with adequate symptom control when their disease becomes advanced, according to the report by the National Cancer Policy Board, an expert committee assembled by the nonprofit Institute of Medicine and National Research Council.

"Nine million Americans, or 3 percent of the population, are living with a diagnosis of cancer," said Kathleen Foley of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, a member of the committee that wrote the report. "While we work to cure the many types of cancer, nothing would have greater impact on the daily lives of cancer patients and their families than good symptom control and supportive therapy."

More than half of all dying cancer patients use hospice services, but health insurance programs often force patients to choose between such services or treatments aimed at prolonging their lives rather than allowing them to receive both. The federal Medicare program covers hospice care only if patients are expected to live less than six months, thereby excluding many others who might need help.